1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a luggage carpet to be laid over a luggage room floor of a motor vehicle. In particular, the present invention is concerned with a hinge structure for such luggage carpet.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For having a better understanding of the present invention, a hitherto known luggage carpet will be described by referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings in which FIG. 1 shows in a sectional view a prior known luggage carpet for a motor vehicle in the state in which an associated seat back of a rear seat is folded in the forward direction, and FIG. 2 shows in a sectional view the same in the state in which the seat back is standing upright. In general, in the case of certain types of motor vehicles such as wagon, hatchback car or the like, the seat back 1a of a rear seat 1 is implemented to be forwardly tiltable so that a luggage (or baggage) room can be extended. In this connection, it is noted that a luggage carpet 4 covering a luggage floor 3 is usually so laid as to cover at least particularly the rear face of the seat back 1a. Accordingly, it is preferred from the aesthetic viewpoint that the luggage carpet 4 is implemented in a hinged structure realized at and along a location where the carpet is forced to bend when the seat back 1a is erected from the folded state, as is illustrated in FIG. 2.
FIG. 3 of the accompanying drawings shows a typical one of the hinge structures for the luggage carpet known heretofore. As will be seen in the figure, a sheet of carpet is linearly cut to be separated into a carpet portion 4a to be laid over the rear face of the rear seat back and a carpet portion 4b to be laid over the floor of the luggage room. The separated carpet portions 4a and 4b are then interconnected by sewing with a thread 5a in a zig-zag pattern, being followed by sewing with a thread 5b in a linear pattern, whereby the hinge structure is realized. Parenthetically, it should be mentioned that although the carpet portions 4a and 4b are shown in the separated state, they are actually located or abutted closely to each other.
With the hinge structure mentioned above, the interconnected portion of the carpet should ideally be bent or folded in such a configuration as illustrated in a phantom image in FIG. 2, when the seat back 1a is erected. However, in practice, the hinged portion of the carpet often tends to bend in a manner illustrated in solid lines in FIG. 2 due to the rearward movement of the lower portion of the seat back 1a upon erecting thereof, thus giving rise to a problem that not only the aesthetic appearance of the luggage carpet is degraded but also the luggage room is correspondingly narrowed, involving inconvenience for the use of the room. This problem becomes significant in case the carpet has a high rigidness or when the carpet undergoes thermal expansion due to increasing in the ambient temperature.
Additionally, because the hinge structure is realized by sewing together the discrete carpet portions 4a and 4b in the zig-zag pattern, being followed by the linear sewing, the steps for fablicating the hinged carpet will be correspondingly increased in the number. Besides, the edge of the carpet portion resulting from the cutting thereof must be appropriately processed to ensure a good appearance, the hinge carpet becomes expensive, to further disadvantage.